World War II

CONTENTS

1. Leading up to World War II

2. Outbreak of World War II
(1939)
3. World War II in the West
(1940-41)
4. Operation Barbarossa (1941-
42)
5. World War II in the Pacific
(1941-43)
6. Toward Allied Victory in World
War II (1943-45)
7. World War II Ends (1945)
8. PHOTO GALLERIES

The instability created in Europe by the

First World War (1914-18) set the stage
for another international conflict–World
War II–which broke out two decades
later and would prove even more
devastating. Rising to power in an
economically and politically unstable
Germany, Adolf Hitler and his National
Socialist (Nazi Party) rearmed the
nation and signed strategic treaties
with Italy and Japan to further his
ambitions of world domination. Hitler’s
invasion of Poland in September 1939
drove Great Britain and France to
declare war on Germany, and World
War II had begun. Over the next six
years, the conflict would take more
lives and destroy more land and
property around the globe than any
previous war. Among the estimated 45-
60 million people killed were 6 million
Jews murdered in Nazi concentration
camps as part of Hitler’s diabolical
“Final Solution,” now known as the
Holocaust.

Leading up to World
War II

The devastation of the Great War (as

World
World
World War
War
War III was known at the time)
had greatly destabilized Europe, and in
many respects World War II grew out of
issues left unresolved by that earlier
conflict. In particular, political and
economic instability in Germany, and
lingering resentment over the harsh
terms imposed by the Versailles Treaty,
fueled the rise to power of Adolf
Adolf
Adolf Hitler
Hitler
Hitler
and his National Socialist (Nazi) Party.

World War I
Did you know? As early as
1923, in his memoir and
propaganda tract "Mein
Kampf" (My Struggle), Adolf
Hitler had predicted a general
European war that would
result in "the extermination of
Adolf Hitler
the Jewish race in Germany."

After becoming Reich Chancellor in

1933, Hitler swiftly consolidated power,
anointing himself Führer (supreme
leader) in 1934. Obsessed with the
idea of the superiority of the “pure”
German race, which he called “Aryan,”
Hitler believed that war was the only
way to gain the necessary
“Lebensraum,” or living space, for that
race to expand. In the mid-1930s, he
began the rearmament of Germany,
secretly and in violation of the
Versailles Treaty. After signing
alliances with Italy and Japan against
the Soviet
Soviet
Soviet Union
Union,
Union Hitler sent troops to
occupy Austria in 1938 and the
following year annexed
Czechoslovakia. Hitler’s open
aggression went unchecked, as the
United States and Soviet Union were
concentrated on internal politics at the
time, and neither France nor Britain
(the two other nations most devastated
by the Great War) were eager for
confrontation.
Soviet Union

Outbreak of World
War II (1939)

In late August 1939, Hitler and Soviet

leader Joseph
Joseph
Joseph Stalin
Stalin
Stalin signed the
German-Soviet
German-Soviet
German-Soviet Nonaggression
Nonaggression
Nonaggression Pact
Pact,
Pact
which incited a frenzy of worry in
London and Paris. Hitler had long
planned an invasion of Poland, a nation
to which Great Britain and France had
guaranteed military support if it was
attacked by Germany. The pact with
Stalin meant that Hitler would not face
a war on two fronts once he invaded
Poland, and would have Soviet
Joseph Stalin
assistance in conquering and dividing
German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact
the nation itself. On September 1,
1939, Hitler invaded Poland from the
west; two days later, France and Britain
declared war on Germany, beginning
World War II.

On September 17, Soviet troops

invaded Poland from the east. Under
attack from both sides, Poland fell
quickly, and by early 1940 Germany
and the Soviet Union had divided
control over the nation, according to a
secret protocol appended to the
Nonaggression Pact. Stalin’s forces
then moved to occupy the Baltic States
(Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) and
defeated a resistant Finland in the
Russo-Finish War. During the six
months following the invasion of
Poland, the lack of action on the part of
Germany and the Allies in the west led
to talk in the news media of a “phony
war.” At sea, however, the British and
German navies faced off in heated
battle, and lethal German U-boat
submarines struck at merchant
shipping bound for Britain, sinking
more than 100 vessels in the first four
months of World War II.

World War II in the

West (1940-41)

On April 9, 1940, Germany

simultaneously invaded Norway and
occupied Denmark, and the war began
in earnest. On May 10, German forces
swept through Belgium and the
Netherlands in what became known as
“blitzkrieg,” or lightning war. Three
days later, Hitler’s troops crossed the
Meuse River and struck French forces
at Sedan, located at the northern end
of the Maginot
Maginot
Maginot Line
Line,
Line an elaborate chain
of fortifications constructed after World
War I and considered an impenetrable
defensive barrier. In fact, the Germans
broke through the line with their tanks
and planes and continued to the rear,
rendering it useless. The British
Expeditionary Force (BEF) was
evacuated by sea from Dunkirk
Dunkirk
Dunkirk in late
May, while in the south French forces
mounted a doomed resistance. With
Maginot Line
France on the verge of collapse, Benito
Benito
Benito
Mussolini
Mussolini
Mussolini of Italy put his Pact of Steel
with Hitler into action, and Italy
declared war against France and
Britain on June 10.

On June 14, German forces entered

Paris; a new government formed by
Dunkirk
Marshal Philippe Petain (France’s hero
of World War I) requested an armistice
two nights later. France was
Benito
subsequently divided into two zones,
Mussolini
one under German military occupation
and the other under Petain’s
government, installed at Vichy. Hitler
now turned his attention to Britain,
which had the defensive advantage of
being separated from the Continent by
the English Channel.

To pave the way for an amphibious

invasion (dubbed Operation Sea Lion),
German planes bombed Britain
extensively throughout the summer of
1940, including night raids on London
and other industrial centers that
caused heavy civilian casualties and
damage. The Royal Air Force (RAF)
eventually defeated the Luftwaffe
(German Air Force) in the Battle
Battle
Battle of
of
of
Britain
Britain,
Britain and Hitler postponed his plans
to invade. With Britain’s defensive
resources pushed to the limit, Prime
Minister Winston Churchill began
receiving crucial aid from the U.S.
under the Lend-Lease
Lend-Lease
Lend-Lease Act
Act,
Act passed by
Congress in early 1941.

Operation Barbarossa
(1941-42) Battle of
Britain
By early 1941, Hungary, Romania and
Bulgaria had joined the Axis, and
German troops overran Yugoslavia and
Greece that April. Hitler’s conquest of
Lend-Lease
the Balkans Act
was a precursor for his
real objective: an invasion of the Soviet
Union, whose vast territory would give
the German master race the
“Lebensraum” it needed. The other half
of Hitler’s strategy was the
extermination of the Jews from
throughout German-occupied Europe.
Plans for the “Final Solution” were
introduced around the time of the
Soviet offensive, and over the next
three years more than 4 million Jews
would perish in the death camps
established in occupied Poland.

On June 22, 1941, Hitler ordered the

invasion of the Soviet Union,
codenamed Operation
Operation
Operation Barbarossa
Barbarossa.
Barbarossa
Though Soviet tanks and aircraft
greatly outnumbered the Germans’,
their air technology was largely
obsolete, and the impact of the
surprise invasion helped Germans get
within 200 miles of Moscow by mid-
July. Arguments between Hitler and his
commanders delayed the next German
advance until October, when it was
stalled by a Soviet counteroffensive
Operation Barbarossa
and the onset of harsh winter weather.

World War II in the

Pacific (1941-43)

With Britain facing Germany in Europe,

the United States was the only nation
capable of combating Japanese
aggression, which by late 1941
included an expansion of its ongoing
war with China and the seizure of
European colonial holdings in the Far
East. On December 7, 1941, 360
Japanese aircraft attacked the major
U.S. naval base at Pearl
Pearl
Pearl Harbor
Harbor
Harbor in
Hawaii
Hawaii,
Hawaii taking the Americans
completely by surprise and claiming the
lives of more than 2,300 troops. The
attack on Pearl Harbor served to unify
American public opinion in favor of
entering World War II, and on
December 8 Congress declared war on
Japan with only one dissenting vote.
Germany and the other Axis Powers
promptly declared war on the United
Pearl Harbor
States.
Hawaii

After a long string of Japanese

victories, the U.S. Pacific Fleet won the
Battle
Battle
Battle of
of
of Midway
Midway
Midway in June 1942, which
proved to be a turning point in the war.
On Guadalcanal, one of the southern
Solomon Islands, the Allies also had
success against Japanese forces in a
series of battles from August 1942 to
February 1943, helping turn the tide
further in the Pacific. In mid-1943,
Allied naval forces began an
aggressive counterattack against
Japan, involving a series of amphibious
Battle of Midway
assaults on key Japanese-held islands
in the Pacific. This “island-hopping”
strategy proved successful, and Allied
forces moved closer to their ultimate
goal of invading the Japanese
homeland.

Toward Allied Victory

in World War II (1943-
45)

In
In
In North
North
North Africa
Africa,
Africa British and American
forces had defeated the Italians and
Germans by 1943. An Allied invasion of
Sicily and Italy followed, and
Mussolini’s government fell in July
1943, though Allied fighting against the
Germans in Italy would continue until
1945.

On World War II’s Eastern Front, a

Soviet counteroffensive launched in
In North Africa
November 1942 ended the bloody
Battle
Battle
Battle of
of
of Stalingrad
Stalingrad,
Stalingrad which had seen
some of the fiercest combat of the war.
The approach of winter, along with
dwindling food and medical supplies,
spelled the end for German troops
there, and the last of them surrendered
on January 31, 1943.

On June 6, 1944–celebrated as “D-

Day”–the Allied began a massive
invasion of Europe, landing 156,000
Battle of Stalingrad
British, Canadian and American
soldiers on the beaches of Normandy,
France. In response, Hitler poured all
the remaining strength of his army into
Western Europe, ensuring Germany’s
defeat in the east. Soviet troops soon
advanced into Poland, Czechoslovakia,
Hungary and Romania, while Hitler
gathered his forces to drive the
Americans and British back from
Germany in the Battle
Battle
Battle of
of
of the
the
the Bulge
Bulge
Bulge
(December 1944-January 1945), the
last major German offensive of the war.

Battle of the Bulge

An intensive aerial bombardment in

February 1945 preceded the Allied land
invasion of Germany, and by the time
Germany formally surrendered on May
8, Soviet forces had occupied much of
the country. Hitler was already dead,
having committed suicide on April 30 in
his Berlin bunker.

World War II Ends

(1945)

At the Potsdam
Potsdam
Potsdam Conference
Conference
Conference of July-
August 1945, U.S. President Harry S.
Truman (who had taken office after
Roosevelt’s death in April), Churchill
and Stalin discussed the ongoing war
with Japan as well as the peace
settlement with Germany. Post-war
Germany would be divided into four
occupation zones, to be controlled by
the Soviet Union, Britain, the United
States and France. On the divisive
Potsdam Conference
matter of Eastern Europe’s future,
Churchill and Truman acquiesced to
Stalin, as they needed Soviet
cooperation in the war against Japan.

Heavy casualties sustained in the

campaigns at Iwo Jima (February
1945) and Okinawa (April-June 1945),
and fears of the even costlier land
invasion of Japan led Truman to
authorize the use of a new and
devastating weapon–the atomic bomb–
on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima
and Nagasaki in early August. On
August 15, the Japanese government